Newsletters

Year 5 Newsletter (September 2024)

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Year 5 Newsletter  

Autumn 2024


Autumn Word Art, Fall Foliage Fill Pattern

 

Welcome back!

We hope you had a wonderful summer holiday - we have been hearing all about the adventures the children got up to over the last few weeks.

Everyone has settled in to their new year group really well. We have some exciting things planned for Year Five this year and cannot wait to get started with the new term.

We look forward to meeting you all soon. Please do come and say hello when we are on the playground at the start and end of each day.


The Year 5 team this year...

Our class name is Salhouse and the teachers are:

Mr Arthur (Monday –Tuesday) and Mrs Harrison (Wednesday – Friday) 

We are joined this year by Ms Burch and Mrs Magee, Mrs Webb and Mrs Blazer who will be working with our class throughout the year.


Our weekly timetable


Curriculum Overview

Curriculum Overview | Whitburn Church of England Academy

Autumn

Literacy: We begin with a poetry unit for two weeks followed by a longer unit based on Michael Morpurgo's novel, The Butterfly Lion. 

Maths: We start with place value work before focusing on the formal methods of calculation for the four operations (Addition, subtraction, division and multiplication). 

Science: Children will be learning about forces in the world around them. We will be conducting some exciting experiments and learning about the work of Sir Isaac Newton. After half-term, we will be looking at materials and their properties.

Geography: Our first geography topic in September will be a local study to get to know our new class name – Salhouse. We will be learning about how the broads were formed and how their arrival impacted the local environment. After half-term, we will be learning how mountains are formed, their locations around the world and the different types of mountains. This will take us up to Christmas.  

History: In the spring we will be starting our topic all about the Anglo Saxons and Vikings We will learn about the lives of Anglo Saxons and Vikings, the foods they ate, where they came from and much more.

R.W.E: In Religious and Worldviews Eductation we look more closely at the two World faiths of Islam and Christianity across the year. We begin with Islam by looking at the five pillars. 

Art: We are going to be learning about collage and looking at how different artists have used this medium to create fantastic and unique art.  

Computing: We start the year by looking at how to remain safe online, and use the Internet appropriately. We will also complete a unit exploring different forms of communication, how to use search engines more effectively and how to check the validity of things we read online.

Music: We will be exploring a wide variety of musical genres, heritage and movements. Lots of singing and performing too, of course! 

French: Mrs Blazer will teach the children how to greet each other and how to pronounce and talk about school subjects in French. 

More info on our curriculum can be found in the curriculum section on the school website. 


Logins and passwords

We will be using a number of different websites to support the learning we do in class this year. These will be stuck in to your child's Home/School Journal. Please ask a member of the Year 5 team if you have any questions about any of them.

The websites include: Times Table Rockstars, Numbots, Stick & Split, MyMaths, Prodigy and the Google workplace (which includes GMail, Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Classroom).


St Kew ACE Academy - Physical Education

Salhouse has PE on Tuesday and Thursday. Please ensure that your child has the correct PE kit on these days.

A reminder that our uniform policy for PE kit is a plain white or navy t-shirt and navy or black shorts/jogging bottoms. School jumpers can be worn. We are also suggesting that children who wear earrings do not wear them on PE days. 


We will be setting homework once a week, either maths on Mymaths.com or a project based activity (Literacy, spelling or from another area of the curriculum), this is to be completed in their new Learning Log books.

Homework will be set on a Thursday and will be due in on a Wednesday. 

Your child has been given a homework folder to put bits of work in. They are allowed to decorate the folder if they would like to. They have also been given a homework book and have been asked to cover it in any way they like. The challenge is to cover it so that we can't see the original book colour. We are looking forward to seeing all the wonderful covers!


Introducing Fibonacci!

Fibonacci the frog is our maths friend. He can help children with maths both in and out of school. If you are lucky, Fibonacci will be coming to visit soon.


Home reading

Please encourage your children to read as often as possible at home. Just 15 to 20 minutes a day will result in huge benefits for your child. If they read 3 times in a week and record it in their journal they will receive a house point, 5 times will result in 2 house points. There is an extensive range of reading resources and suggestions available on our school website.

Epic!

All children in Salhouse have access to a fantastic resource called Epic!. Epic! is a digital library for children that offers access to books, audiobooks, and learning videos which can be used in school and at home. 

To access Epic!, children need log on here and use the class code: mln6077 (details are also the Salhouse google classroom).


Naming items...

Please can all personal items be named wherever possible. Coats, schools jumpers and stationary all go missing throughout the year and it is so much easier to find if it is named. Thank you. 

melu kids® Name Labels for Clothes & Items (50, Blue) No-Iron Labels,  Personalised and Washable Clothing Kids Name Stickers, Stick on Tags School,  Care Homes : Amazon.co.uk: Stationery & Office Supplies


Banister Primary School - Marvellous Me

We will be using Marvellous Me again this year so that you can keep up to date with all the amazing things your children have been up to. 

Your child has brought a letter home with details of how to access the app. Your log on details will carry over from last year though, so you'll be able to log on in the usual way if you used it last year.

There is a useful video which will give you an idea of what Marvellous Me is all about. For more information, have a look at the parent walk through information.

Please let one of the Year 5 team know if you are having any problems.


Our new class rules

This week we came up with some new rules for our class together. It was great to hear the thoughts of all the children about how our new rules would mean we can have a fantastic year.

Here are our Salhouse class rules...

As part of our class rules, we discussed how we treat school property. We decided that any school property that is deliberately damaged will need to be replaced. This only applies to smaller items such as pens, pencils, rulers, rubbers, exercise books etc. A token amount of no more than 50p will need to be paid to the school office for a replacement. We all hope that this will help foster a greater sense of pride and respect in our year group.


Non-negotiables

In addition to the class rules we agreed this week, we have a set of non-negotiables that will apply to everyone who comes in to Salhouse (children and adults). The aim to ensure a consistent approach throughout the year for whoever visits our class.

Here is a copy of our Salhouse non-negotiables...


Communication is important in all families

We are all really looking forward to the year ahead. We will do all we can to make sure you are kept up to date with everything that will be happening throughout the year. If you have any questions or concerns though, please do let us know. Members of the Year 5 team will be on the playground before and after school if you want to chat to us then. Alternatively you could send a note in your child's Home/School Journal. We are looking forward to meeting you all soon.

The Year 5 team